Sad about real estate?

Then get over it, at the bottom the tough start buying

clipped from obeoman.blogspot.com Glad knowing: -you are getting a REAL marketing program: -one million buyers a month are going to class=blsp-spelling-error id=SPELLING_ERROR_0>Obeo! -full service-order on the phone or on line -the pictures get taken, uploaded and everything else is done by us! -you get really good content, -really great branding,-yours! -really great web exports, -really great tools that you KNOW buyers (and sellers) really love; class=blsp-spelling-corrected id=SPELLING_ERROR_1> class=blsp-spelling-corrected> class=blsp-spelling-corrected>...like being able to: redecorate online, move furniture, and up to 30% off your time on market. -plus statistcal reporting that tells you and your seller your listing is getting seen. href="http://www.obeo.com/Public/Solutions/Default.aspx">Let's get happy! Steve

Next Russian President in Serbia

In a trip built around energy policy, imagine that, the next Russian President Medvedev meets with Serb officials regarding the Kosovo statement of independance.

clipped from www.alertnet.org Medvedev meets Serb leaders to discuss Kosovo Russia's likely next president Dmitry Medvedev meets Serbia's president and prime minister on Monday in a show of support over Kosovo. Medvedev, the Kremlin-backed frontrunner for president, will meet pro-Western President Boris Tadic and nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who has long leaned on Moscow for help against the secession of Serbia's southern province. "First and foremost, we want to hear what the Serbs will say (on Kosovo)," a Russian government source told reporters.

Gun BuyBack Flop

In what can only be called classic liberalism, a city buys back cheap guns to create more security, and gun dealers profit. That's called capitalism.

clipped from www.marginalrevolution.com Gun Buyback Misfires Imagine that instead of guns, the Oakland police decided, for whatever strange reason, to buy back sneakers. The idea of a gun buyback is to reduce the supply of guns in Oakland. Do you think that a sneaker buyback program would reduce the number of people wearing sneakers in Oakland? Of course not. All that would happen is that people would reach into the back of their closet and sell the police a bunch of old, tired, stinky sneakers. Gun buybacks won't reduce the number of guns in Oakland. In fact, buybacks may increase the number of guns in Oakland. Oakland's recent gun buyback was especially ridiculous.  The police offered up to $250 for a gun "no questions asked, no ID required."  The first people in line?  Two gun dealers from Reno with 60 cheap handguns.  Fortunately the buyback did manage to get some guns off the street, too bad they were turned in by a bunch of senior citizens from an assisted living facility.

Kosovo - First Daltonsbriefs Country Specific Site

If you're a regular reader here at Daltonsbriefs International affairs blog, then you know that I've been watching the action in Kosovo and Serbia for the last couple months. I decided this morning that it might be a good idea to split off a separate site just for this issue. So, the beginning of our first Country Specific site.

Kosovo - Daltonsbriefs Country Specific

Head over for an update and some of my history research into the conflicts and problems in Kosovo and the Balkan region.

IMF - what is it? should it exist forever?

I was chancing around some new sites on my reader when a question popped up, and frankly I didn't even know where to start, so here's my little trek:

Original post: Should the IMF behave like a sovereign growth fund?

Well, I don't really understand what the IMF does so off to Wikipedia. "The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization that oversees the global financial system by observing exchange rates and balance of payments, as well as offering financial and technical assistance. Its headquarters are located in Washington, D.C., USA." Wikipedia

And "Typically the IMF and its supporters advocate a Keynesian approach. As such, adherents of supply-side economics generally find themselves in open disagreement with the IMF. The IMF frequently advocates currency devaluation, criticized by proponents of supply-side economics as inflationary. Secondly they link higher taxes under "austerity programmes" with economic contraction.

Currency devaluation is recommended by the IMF to the governments of poor nations with struggling economies. Supply-side economists claim these Keynesian IMF policies are destructive to economic prosperity.

That said, the IMF sometimes advocates "austerity programmes," increasing taxes even when the economy is weak, in order to generate government revenue and balance budget deficits, which is the opposite of Keynesian policy. These policies were criticised by Joseph E. Stiglitz, former chief economist and Senior Vice President at the World Bank, in his book Globalization and Its Discontents.[8] He argued that by converting to a more Monetarist approach, the fund no longer had a valid purpose, as it was designed to provide funds for countries to carry out Keynesian reflations." Wikipedia

Ok, then took me to an older post by Marginal Revolution asking the question Should we shut down the IMF? "Many critics argue that Bretton Woods has gone away and the world has no current financial crises. What is the IMF to do? Plus the IMF's management of crises can be counterproductive and create moral hazard."

I also spent a few minutes making sure I understood the difference between the IMF and the World Bank, which I believe is thus: The IMF works to allow countries to borrow to maintain stability of currencies ... the World Bank allows grants and loans for "developement" that in theory would eliminate poverty or other social malaise. I'll be honest the libertarian in me was struck with a giant ..... Who cares. They obviously aren't accomplishing a ton, and in many sectors of the world they are propping up non-democractic regimes.

Until further reading on the matter, I am bent toward abolishing and shuttering both. We could save some money, we could allow commercial entities to step in and make a profit, we could stop encouraging nations to increase their taxes for sure!

Obama: What does he stand for?

From Publius Pundit:

Obama is anti-gun.
Obama is pro-illegal immigrant.
Obama is religiously/racially extreme.
Obama is anti-democratic, fomenting a cult of personality.
Obama's wife is an anti-American loose cannon.
Obama has no experience and his platform is all image, no substance

US Embassy attacked in Serbia

Looks like we chose the right people to side with, Kosovo. How dare the Serbians attack us?

Reuters post on Serbian attack on our emabassy in Serbia.

Serbia recalls US Ambassador

According to news reports (Fox and Reuters):

BELGRADE, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Serbia said on Monday it was recalling its
ambassador to the United States after Washington recognised Serbia's breakaway
province of Kosovo as independent.

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica
told a special session of parliament the U.S. move continued NATO's aggression
which began when it bombed Serbia in 1999 to expel its forces from Kosovo and
stop a brutal Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
He said
Serbia would announce similar steps against any other countries that recognised
Kosovo but did not mention the European Union states that also said on Monday
they were recognising Pristina.

Kostunica said recognition showed the
"true face" of America's policy of force.
"Kosovo has not been lost but a
new page in our history has begun. The main goal of Serbia's state policy is the
return of Kosovo to Serbia," he said in the address carried live on state
television.

He said an EU police and justice mission that would soon be
deployed to Kosovo was illegal and represented a breach of Serbian sovereignty.

He appealed for peaceful protests by Serbs after two days of at times
violent protests in Belgrade.

"Serbia has to maintain stability in order
to regain Kosovo," he said.
Kosovo declared independence on Sunday after
almost nine years under U.N. administration.

The United States and the
EU's biggest nations recognised it as a new country on Tuesday.

AP Reported a Russian Response with some implicit threats too:

Russia’s parliament said Monday Moscow had the right to review its stance
on separatist states in former Soviet republics, if Kosovo is recognized as
independent, Interfax news agency reported.

Sovereignty for Kosovo “would give Russia every right to build a new
format for its relations with self-proclaimed states,” said a declaration
adopted by both houses of parliament after Kosovo’s declaration of independence
Sunday.

“Now that the situation in Kosovo has become an international
precedent, Russia should view existing territorial conflicts taking into account
the Kosovo scenario,” the declaration said.

Happy Birthday Kosovo

Kosovo MPs proclaim independence :

Albanian and American flags have been on prominent display
Declaration

Kosovo's parliament has unanimously endorsed a declaration of independence from Serbia, in a historic session.

Celebrations went on into the night after Prime Minister Hashim Thaci promised a democracy that respected the rights of all ethnic communities. Serbia's PM denounced the US for helping create a "false state".

A split later emerged at the Security Council, when Russia said there was no basis for changing a 1999 resolution which handed Kosovo to the UN. Seven Western countries said it was quite clear the situation had moved on.

See a map of Kosovo's ethnic breakdown

Kosovo Independance

First, it is a certainty that Kosovo will declare independance.

Second, the United States has backed this drive for freedom. Look closely at the list of dignitaries that will be in attendance, EU and NATO. Really only Russia and former puppet Serbia will decry this step in independance for the mostly Alabanian country.

My thought? If you are Serbian and live in Kosovo, live in freedom and peace. If you can't control yourself, move to Serbia. The times of ethnic cleansing are over, time for people to get over their very slight differences in ethnicity.

From AlertNet Reuters:

PRISTINA, Serbia, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The last time Kosovo declared
independence in 1990 it went unrecognised and ignored. When it splits from
Serbia this weekend, it will have the support of the West, which sees no way
back. The breakaway province is poised to cement a secession that its 2
million Albanians believe became irreversible the moment NATO went to war to
save them from Serb forces in 1999. "These will be days of joy and
happiness," Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said on Wednesday, flanked by the commander of NATO troops in Kosovo and the head of the United Nations mission that has run the province since the war.

"This is a decision based on the sacrifice and political will of the citizens," said the former guerrilla commander. The date for the declaration has not been announced, but political sources say plans are in place for Sunday. Certain of recognition from the United States and most members of the European Union, Kosovo will become the last state to emerge from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Backed by Russia, Serbia will reject the move. It will encourage Kosovo's 120,000 remaining Serbs to do the same, worsening a de facto ethnic partition that will weigh on the new state for years to come.

A new flag is being prepared and the Kosovo Philharmonic is primed to perform Beethoven's Ode to Joy to kick off the celebrations. Money has been set aside to import electricity between Feb 15 and 20 to ensure crippling power cuts do not spoil the party. The 16,000-strong NATO-led peace force has stepped up security around dozens of scattered Serb enclaves. Serbia has promised retaliation against the new
state and its backers -- including possible border closures and the expulsion of
ambassadors. But there will be no return of the Serb army and police that pulled
out in 1999 under NATO bombs.

SERBIA IN CRISIS to read the rest of the story

Obama sending "advisor" to meet with Syrians

Did that headline make your skin crawl?
Does Barack intend to distmantle the US-NATO-Israel alliance on his first day in office?

I have stayed away from attacking Hillary or Barack, since obviously I support John McCain and think he can beat either one of them. But, down deep in places I'd prefer not to talk about, I am worried ... deeply worried that Barack Obama is a real bad thing for the United States.

Sure, I dislike the Clintons and suffered the 90's. But this is different, this could be a selling of our cutlure, and societal norms to a very flashy talking leader. I am afraid of Barack, there I've said it.

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com A foreign policy adviser to Senator Obama is scheduled to arrive in Syria today as the leader of a RAND Corp. delegation. Zbigniew Brzezinski will travel to Damascus for meetings as part of a trip Syria's official Cham News agency described as an "important sign that the end of official dialogue between Washington and Damascus has not prevented dialogue with important American intellectuals and politicians."

Israel increasing pressure on Hamas

I'll be frank here, its high time the Palestinian people step up and throw the Islamacist fanatics out of their region. Send Hamas back to Syria and let them try their tricks there.

The time for Hamas is over, Israel has signalled interest in allowing Palestine to become a full fledged country. With the leadership of George Bush and the United States, this could actually happen this year. But, Hamas needs to go, and the Palestinian people need to do the work to get rid of them.

clipped from www.alertnet.org Israel threatens to topple Gaza's Hamas rulers Israel threatened to topple the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers on Monday following a surge of cross-border rocket attacks by the Palestinian Islamist group. "I believe a combination of steps against Hamas in Gaza will bring an end to the Hamas regime in Gaza," Israel's Vice Premier Haim Ramon told reporters. "They will not last. It will take a few months, maybe it will take a year

Al-Queda losing grip in Iraq

According to their own diaries, seized in raids by US military, they are losing their grip in Iraq. The surge is working, the President of Iran plans to travel to Iraq for the first time in a sign that even he knows that a democratic Iraq is here to stay.

clipped from abcnews.go.com US: al-Qaida in Iraq Weakened US Military: Documents Seized During US Raids Show al-Qaida in Iraq Weakened A diary and another document seized during U.S. raids show some al-Qaida in Iraq leaders fear the terror group is crumbling, with many fighters defecting to American-backed neighborhood groups, the U.S. military said Sunday. "We lost cities and afterward, villages ... We find ourselves in a wasteland desert," Smith quoted the document as saying. The documents tell "narrow but compelling stories of the challenges al-Qaida in Iraq is facing," Smith told reporters in Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone.

Totalitarianism gone awry

The problem with having power, is that you never vote yourself out of it. The leaders of Mynamar, formerly Burma, are just plain having a hard time giving up power. Time to form a constitution and have free and open elections.

clipped from abcnews.go.com Myanmar Junta Sets 2010 for Elections Myanmar's military government, a target of sharp international criticism for failing to hand over power to a democratically elected government, announced Saturday that it will hold elections in 2010. The junta also said a national referendum to approve a new constitution will be held in May. It was the first time the government has set dates for stages of its so-called road map to democracy.

Meanwhile in Somalia

The War on Terror is ragin in Somalia too. A group of Islamacist fanatics attempted to take over all of Somalia last year. They initially won the capital, and then were rebuffed by a coalition of Ethiopian and other African allies.

Now the fanatics seem to be losing ground, as they are in Afganistan and Iraq and Pakistan, so it's time in my estimation to start talking about elections and democracy and freedoms. Postponing this talk is the first step to despotism.

clipped from www.alertnet.org Police say 49 insurgents surrender in Mogadishu "Forty-nine fighters from al-Shabab surrendered to the authorities in Mogadishu this morning," said a police officer who asked not to be named. He was referring to the military wing of a sharia courts group ousted from the capital last year. He gave no other details, and insurgent leaders could not immediately be reached for comment. Somalia's government and its Ethiopian allies face a persistent Islamist insurgency in Mogadishu. Rights workers say fighting in the capital killed 6,500 people last year African Union (AU) troops from Uganda sit on top of a tank as they patrol past Madina hospital in the south of Mogadishu February 6, 2008. At least 20 people killed ...

Kenya: Some progress toward a solution?

Although I'm not comfortable with power sharing arrangements, they really arent democracy, I can understand that the violence and tribal craziness needs to be subdued.

But, in the long run Kenya needs to have a free and open election, and the President needs to be accepted by law not by power.

clipped from www.alertnet.org Kenya rivals make progress, tough talks lie ahead Kenya's feuding parties have moderated their positions at talks on President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election and hope to reach a deal within days to end a crisis that has killed more than 1,000 people. Despite the apparent signs of progress, a lasting deal was still far from certain. Kenya's bloodshed has exposed deep divisions over land, wealth and power sown during British colonial rule and stoked by politicians ever since.

Chris Hedges talks Venezuala

I don't know a ton about this specific little dictator, but I know that the United States of America is widely hated in places where freedom is despised.

clipped from christopherhedges.com Socialist Venezuela Crumbles As Chavez’s Failures Mount Venezuela dictator Hugo Chavez and his country are learning the hard way as socialism’s failures grind what should be a paradise — Venezuela has oil riches — into the ground with economic and social problems. Simon Romero of the New York Times reports how socialism is failing the citizens of Venezuela: These should be the best of times for Venezuela, blessed with the largest conventional oil reserves outside the Middle East and oil prices near record highs. But this country’s economic and social problems have become so acute lately that President Hugo Chávez is facing an unusual onslaught of criticism, even from his own supporters, about his management of the country. …

Karen Conover to replace Matt Murphy on Council

A good friend and ally in the Costas Reformation process, Karen Conover, was selected by caucus to replace Matt Murphy on the County Council. Matt Murphy was selected by Mayor Costas to join the city team, as Valparaiso Economic Development Director.

This is just another terrific move to move new leaders into positions to help change Porter County and ultimately Northwest Indiana. Great work Mayor Costas!

clipped from www.nwitimes.com GOP fills County Council seat Conover, a former council member and current Valparaiso city worker, beat Robert McCasland, who unsuccessfully challenged Mayor Jon Costas in the Republican mayoral primary. Conover will represent Center Township during a year that likely will take on several big issues, such as tax bills, the Regional Development Authority and county budgets. Porter County Republican Chairman Chuck Williams said these were the only two candidates who sought the seat, but several other potential candidates withdrew their names prior to the caucus. "There was strong support for (Conover), and the vote reflected that," said Williams. The final vote from the caucus was not published. Williams said 22 Republican precinct committeemen attended Thursday's caucus, including Murphy. "That's about an 80 percent turnout," Williams said. "That's pretty good." Councilman Jim Burge is also a precinct committee member for the 3rd District but was out of the country during the event.

Russian malfeasance in Kosovo

Publius Pundit follows a train of thought suggesting that Russia is the world bad boy. Can't keep their hands out of things they don't understand. Still using their energy resources to try and buy influence in small countries.

Time for Russia to give up on stealing independance from Kosovo and walk away from the Serbia they screwed up in the first place.

clipped from publiuspundit.com Just as Russia "liberated" Poland from the Nazis only to subject it to another and even longer period of brutal abuse, including the seminal outrage of the Katyn massacre, one of the single most barbaric events in all of human history, so Russia is is now exploiting Serbia, seeking to href="http://russophobe.blogspot.com/2008/01/serbian-suckers.html">seize control of the country's energy industry by fomenting its paranoia over independence for Kosovo by promising to obstruct progress on that issue in exchange for Serbia signing over its energy soul. But does Russia understand what it is getting itself into? The Wall Street Journal states: Just like the USSR before it, Russia is prepared to sacrifice all, most especially the ordinary citizens of Russia itself, in the vain hope of achieving empire.

Full Fledged War along Chad-Sudan Border

LIttle by little the rumors of war have spread. First Sudan fought it's own internal war in Darfur, still on going. Then Chad faced rebels inside the country. Then Sudanese forces appeared to combine forces with Chadian rebels. Then Chadian forces with Sudanese rebels.

This is a powder keg, and not all that far from Kenya as well.

clipped from www.alertnet.org Darfur rebels say they fighting Sudan troops in Chad Rebels from Sudan's Darfur region said on Tuesday that their fighters were engaged in Chad, but they were fighting Sudanese army forces who were backing rebels trying to oust Chadian President Idriss Deby. "Some troops of JEM (Justice and Equality Movement) are there in eastern Chad because troops of the government of Sudan are also there and attacked Adre," JEM commander Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr told Reuters. The Chad army earlier said it repulsed an attack by Sudanese forces and rebels on Adre, a frontier town on the Chad-Sudan border, on Sunday. Chad says Sudan is behind the latest assault on Deby's rule because it does not want a European Union force to deploy a peacekeeping force in eastern Chad to protect some 240,000 Darfuri refugees and 180,000 Chadians driven from their homes.

International Scene - Super Bowl Sunday

I tend to use Clipit to throw my international reads on this blog quickly, but I don't think that they get quite the searchability, so I will take the time to put the links and comments into one longer post on International issues of concern today:

1. ABC News showcases the ever-growing war along the Sudan and Chad border in Africa. Basically all the national lines surrounding the Darfur region are inflamed with tribal and national war frenzy. Sudanese may well be helping the Chadian rebels. Chadian troops and money may be assisting the Sudanese rebels. There is a general havoc around Darfur. Of course United Nations efforts have been all but useless.

2. Some theorists call for Afganistan "surge" similar to the one working now in Iraq to shove the Taliban and Al-Queda forces further into retreat and the hands of Pakistan's army. U.S. Presidential candidate Guiliani had endorsed this kind of action prior to removing his name from selection and endorsing John McCain. Most would assume that both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would not favor any additional troops in the region.

3. Hamas, in a further move to try and shore up control of Gaza, agree to try and control the border crossing into Egypt. Israel has nothing to gain, and more to gain actually if thousands of gazans leave and head to Egypt for good. Hamas needs to gain some foothold before they are looked on as merely terrorist and unworthy of negotiations.

4. Tensions continue to be aggrevated in northern Turkey by Kurdish rebels bent on forming a homeland in northern Turkey and northern Iraq. This area, once the Assyrian empire, is not really even one tribe or people group. But the Kurds would prefer to fight it out and try to gain some foothold in both countries. Sadly, they would gain so much more if they would be the light of democracy instead of totalitarian islamacists.

5. One of my pet projects, or hobbies moreso, is to watch and learn from Kenya. First, because I've been there and second because I feel it has the best chance of reaching true democracy first on the continent. Problem one, tribal tensions are high due to the stolen election. Problem two, the terrorists have a foothold near the east coast so western nations are trying to keep some order, call it security, or we'll lose another country to bedlam. Sadly, this was a country that favored Christ and featured a leader that was supposedly a believer.

Microsoft offers to by Yahoo for $44 Billion

The long awaited Yahoo buy-out, much rumored, was announced this morning. One interesting side note is the question of whether anti-trade regulators will allow this deal. They have a history of looking at Microsoft as the bad guys.

CNBC tries all morning to say that Google is in trouble, I don't think so, they are the original creators. Microsoft is not, they buy creators. More later